Marine science major Kayla Smith is recipient of NEERS Stubby Rankin Prize

Kayla Smith ’13, a marine science major, was the recipient of the Stubby Rankin Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Presentation for her coauthored talk which she presented at the spring meeting of the New England Estuarine Research Society; NEERS, held April 12-14, 2012 at the John Carver Inn in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Her presentation was titled “Evaluating the Saco Bay Estuary system as a nursery ground for commercially valuable and ecologically important fish species” in which she highlighted her ongoing research assessing the early life history characteristics and significant species richness of the larval, post-larval, and juvenile fish assemblages inhabiting the Saco River estuary ecosystem.

James Sulikowski, Ph.D., associate professor in marine science, is her faculty advisor for the project. This study is also a component of the Saco River Estuary Project, designed to better understand and protect the Saco River Estuary and is funded by grants from the NSF (National Science Foundation) through Maine EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research).